(Well, I finally updated. Long absence did have a cause, though—I lost my rough draft [nervous laugh]...somewhere and just now found it again. Proceeding...after you finish the chapter, the A/N at the end should explain a minor detail if you haven't figured it out by then. Good luck...)

X X X

IX: Be a Hero, Samus

Adam Malkovich sat in the control room of a small HQ satellite base, monitoring transmissions. Though he was isolated and had only a small force of lower rank federation workers under him, it was far from an insignificant position; overseeing the sorting and distribution of the trillions of megabytes of information picked up by HQ's satellites held enormous responsibility.

A signal on one of the screens caught his attention, and he finished his conversation with one of his officers to open the new link. The face on the view screen began speaking immediately. "Sir, I've been having some problems with the search...the stupid thing won't work the way I need it to. I though of a few solutions but I'm not sure if they're...permissible."

Adam bit back a laugh at the words. Samus Aran had been sorting through information at the base, searching for anything that could lead her to the Chozo. Knowing the bounty bunter, he could guess what kind of solutions she had in mind.

"'Hacking' is not permissible, Samus. But I think a slight alteration of the program would probably do it no harm."

"What I wanted to hear, sir." Samus terminated the link and started furiously tapping code into the computer at her station. Modifying the program would be tougher than simply cutting through it to what she wanted. But the thought of finding information about the Chozo spurred her on, and she concentrated and began to see an effect.

Quite a few hours later, she tested the new component, tired but satisfied. The search loaded for a few seconds, then bleeped in completion. Samus stared. The screen was loaded with information. More than she had learned in a lifetime, a measly few megabytes. It might not all be about the Chozo directly, but every little clue, however faint, could help her in her search, which lately had been feeling like an obsession. Without hesitating, she began to copy all the data to her ship's computer.

Samus was so focused on her work that when the alarm first went off, she almost didn't notice.

A shrill siren irritated her ears, whining on and off, on and off. She only registered what it meant when the warning lights began to flash, bathing the computer room in a wash of bloody red light. People around her looked up, expressions of panic flitting across their faces; Samus, jerked from her concentration, leapt to her feet, instinct telling her finger to leap towards the trigger of her beam cannon, although the power suit was actually stored in her ship in the docking bays. It reminded her vaguely of her Zero mission, just a few months ago—defenseless, nowhere to run.

The alarm drummed on for what seemed like ages, not stopping for the customary all-clear signal; the tension in the room was clearly evident, as tight-lipped, wide-eyed government workers stared at the main view screen for the forthcoming announcement. Finally, the lights shut off, and Adam's face crackled into view, pale but still looking stern.

"Attention. Terminate all transmissions immediately and transfer to emergency backup. As soon as you are finished, board the evacuation ships in your designated group. Pilots are responsible for their groups—leave as soon as your group is assembled. This is not a drill...I repeat, this is not a drill." There was a pause, as he took a deep breath and continued: "A force of space pirate ships has been detected coming in our direction; with the current defenses, we can't fight them off. The ETA is fifteen minutes. Once the evacuation is complete, our system will be wiped. Once again, this is not a drill. Good luck."

The screen shut off, leaving the occupants of the computer room to simmer in the shocked quiet that ensued. Then, as one by one the federation workers came to their senses, a flurry of last-minute activity swept across the room, depriving it of its silence. Samus's heart was pounding so fast it felt like a drum. Fifteen minutes...

The information. How long would the transfer take? Adam had said...

Samus gritted her teeth. She might never find this source again...it was almost half done already. She sat tensely at the unit Adam had let her use as the copying ticked slowly on, the only still figure in the mass of rapidly evacuating people. She found herself hunched over the screen, counting with the numbers, urging the computer faster. Five minutes passed, and only six others remained in the room...eighty-eight percent...seven minutes, two people, ninety-three percent...eight minutes, and no one was left in the room. Ninety-seven...ninety-eight...ninety-nine...download complete!

Samus flipped the switch on her computer, not even bothering to shut the system down, and leapt out of her seat, well-trained legs propelling her down corridors and through hatches at breakneck speed. She vaulted up two flights of stairs to the docking bays, taking the steps four at a time, bursting through the blast doors and skidding toward the airlock her ship was held in. Then, just before she activated the control to the entrance hatch, a voice echoed from the right of the hollow white area of the docking bays: "Samus! Samus Aran!"

Samus whirled around at the familiar voice, stopping in her tracks, just in time to see Adam Malkovich jogging around a corner, clutching a large square synthetic-leather box. His eyes, normally so carefully guarded, registered relief at her presence.

He was breathing hard, especially compared to Samus, who had barely suffered from her sprint, but he still kept his commanding appearance. "Lady, I have a mission for you."

"Now? With—the circumstances?" She gestured toward the airlock, knowing he understood. With Adam, she was never in doubt about that. He nodded slightly, face contorted into a slight frown, "Because of them. Basically, some of the information here is , to the point that it would be a major disaster for it to fall into space pirate hands. We thought our cloaking devices would be enough...it seems not, however. These disks," he indicated the box with a dip of his chin, "are the condensed hard drive. I need you to deliver them to HQ."

Samus's breath caught in her chest with an unknown apprehension as she reached out to take the case from her former CO. "Why can't you do it?" she asked, the possible answers floating around in her mind like thunderclouds of ill omen.

He didn't look her directly in the eye as he answered. "You're the better pilot." This wasn't the Adam she knew; he was hiding something. He'd never done anything like that before. Alarm coursed through her body, and Samus, words choked, said, "Adam. What is going on?!" "One ship," he said quietly, as though he could soften the truth by making it inaudible, "will never get by the space pirate fleet. They've surrounded the base. The only way for someone to escape with the disks will be for one of us to stay behind and distract the pirates. You—leave. I'll fly out before you and be the decoy."

"But you'll be—"

"I know the possibilities. But this is why I joined the federation in the first place—to...make a difference. To somehow affect our universe." He blinked once, grey eyes sorrowful, and yet terribly resolute.

Trying hard to keep the panic from her voice, Samus cried, "But that's my job—my job to fight! Why do you think I'm called a bounty hunter? I have to stay here...you go." She stepped forward, offering the case back.

He didn't take it. Just stood there, calm and collected, shoulders straight, head held high, grey eyes steely and serene at once. "That's why I have to stay, Samus. You WILL fight—perhaps more than you want to. But not now. There will be many other times with more at stake than a simple federation outpost. The galaxy—the universe—they need a hero. They don't know—that's not their fault, but you know it's true—and they'll try to put you down, but don't worry. One of them will understand. One of them must. Be a hero, Samus."

He took a deep breath, then turned and walked calmly to the airlock where his ship had been docked. Samus, powerless, watched him go, then, unfeelingly, moved toward her own airlock once more. He had never looked back.

A grey federation ship shot out of the satellite base straight into the head of a formation of space pirate battleships, bombarding them with laser fire. As the formation broke to ward off the pesky intruder, another ship slipped unnoticed through a gap, making its way on autopilot toward HQ as fast as it could.

The human pilot of the ship stood at the window and watched the battleships converge on their target like flies. When the small grey craft was no longer visible, covered by the bulk of the space pirate ships, she blinked once and turned away.

X X X

(if that wasn't apparent, the X X X symbol means flashback. This is my version of Adam's 'death', although, as with all fanfiction, I still wonder how legitimate it seems...

Ah well. Dang it, I forgot what else I was going to put here...[sigh]. Well, thanks for all the reviews, and I hope I can update sooner next time. Until next chapter...)